You Have Never Seen Reality, But Reality Has Seen You [infotainment]

I had gone to meet up with Sam, backstage, where I found her mingling with some of the other speakers and gurus. “There he is, there’s Jay,” she said, excitedly. She was evidently eager to gauge my reaction to her talk, but I remained as infuriatingly equanimous as ever. “Come on, Mr Spock,” she urged, physically nudging me for some kind of a response.

After teasing her for a while longer, I finally broke into a smile. “You nailed it,” I assured her.

“I knew it!” she screeched, leaping into my arms. “I just needed to hear it from you.”

“Hey, be careful with that lightsaber; I don’t feel like losing any limbs today.”

As Sam continued the embrace, her legs now wrapped tightly around my waist, I realised that we had become the centre of attention. “Interesting prop,” said an Indian gentleman.

“Oh, it’s not a prop,” I told him, in all seriousness. “It’s a real lightsaber.”

He analysed my expression for signs of humour, but apparently I had the best poker face in the world (according to Sam).

“Don’t worry, he’s just messing with your head,” she said, hopping down. “I mean, seriously, if this was a real lightsaber… you would all be dead by now.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at her provocative remark, before repeating part of it: “Don’t worry, she’s just messing with your head.”

Sam then whisked me away to the back of the room, where a middle-aged couple were seated, looking slightly out-of-place. “This is Jay,” she informed them. “Jay, this is Ron and Pamela. Apparently they liked my talk.”

“Actually,” said Ron, “we thought it was brilliant. We’ve never heard anybody speak with such passion and originality on the subject. And, believe me, we’ve heard just about everybody.”

“Yes, the Force is strong with this one,” I admitted.

“But you’re the one who taught her, is that right?”

“Well… Let’s just say that I pointed her in the right direction. I can’t take credit for teaching her what she already knew; what all of us really know, on some level.”

“We were wondering,” said Pamela, “where we might go from here.”

“Go?” I queried.

“Yes, I mean, have you written any books, for example?”

“To the making of books there is no end,” I said, somewhat theatrically, “but much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.”

Ron laughed out loud. “Damn right. We practically have a library, back home.”

Sam stared at me with a raised eyebrow. “Was that a Bible quote?” she enquired.

“Yes, why?”

“You never cease to amaze me. I thought you hated the Bible?”

“Even the devil can cite scripture for his own purpose,” I explained.

“That one belongs to Shakespeare,” said Ron, blowing his nose.

Pamela tried to bring us back on-topic. “So, you haven’t written any books yet?” she pressed.

“What exactly do you want to know?” I asked.

“Only the Truth,” she replied.

“I tell you what… There’s a nice little cafe down the road. How about we all continue this discussion over some food? On me, of course.”

Ron and Pamela glanced at each other before silently agreeing. “That sounds lovely,” she said.

“Great! I’m starving,” said Sam, before rushing off to find her shoes.

Scarier Than Monsters

I may be many things, but one thing I’m definitely not is a ‘people person’. And so, under normal circumstances, there’s no way that I would have suggested going out to eat with complete strangers. For Sam, however, as I’ve gradually learned to accept, it’s the other way around. In fact, people are her passion, especially when they show even a glimmer of interest in the truth. And so it was for her that I made the suggestion, knowing that she would welcome an opportunity to engage with what were, after all, her fans and not mine.

The cafe itself — called Steampunk — I knew more by reputation than experience; and, in terms of first impressions, it certainly didn’t disappoint. It actually felt more like the interior of a Borg cube than an eatery, which, as a science-fiction fan, I didn’t mind at all. Quite what Ron and Pamela made of it, however, I wouldn’t like to say. In any case, Sam chose a spot upstairs, overlooking the river, which was still swollen after recent flooding. “What a beautiful view,” said Pamela, sitting down.

“We were kayaking on that a few days ago,” Sam informed them.

“I love the water,” said Ron. “We actually have a boat; travelled all over the world in it.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, his disclosure sparked a conversation that lasted until the food arrived. Since we only had a limited amount of time, however, Sam seemed eager to change the subject. “You’ve both seen so much,” she said, “but you’ll never see Reality. I’m guessing you know what I mean by that?”

Pamela replied by talking about Consciousness and the “true self,” which was technically correct, but semantically awkward.

“True implies false,” said Sam. “And this where non-dual teachings can become misleading. You see, conditioned consciousness isn’t false, as such, it’s simply conditioned. But were it not for conditioning, there would be no individuality at all. And without individuality, there would be no experience. And without experience there would be… Well, nothing. So the true needs the false, if you want to use those words; reality needs illusion. What it doesn’t need, however, is to believe in those illusions. This is the purview of the conditioned self. In fact, that’s what conditioning is, to a large extent. We are conditioned to believe in illusion. And so, whereas non-duality does away with the notion of individuality itself, we are only concerned with conditioning, as it pertains to the belief in illusion. In other words, the awakened individual is neither a phantom nor a mistake, but rather the jewel of creation.”

“Eat something,” I told her, “I thought you were starving.”

Sam shovelled some food into her mouth, before continuing: “Religion makes people feel inferior, guilty and dependent upon a higher power. Whereas non-duality makes people feel irrelevant, by denying their very existence. It’s not that people are being conned, exactly. A person’s beliefs will tend to reflect their level of spiritual evolution. The one thing that most people do not want, therefore, is the truth, because they’re not mature enough to handle the implications of it. They’d much rather deal with monsters — by which I mean evil — than face the prospect of a reality without monsters. What would Star Wars be, after all, without the dark side? Who would watch it? And yet that’s essentially what the truth is asking people to accept, since evil is nothing more than the absence of truth. Do you see why most people don’t want to hear this message? It would mean having to take full responsibility, not just for a single lifetime, but for one’s eternal existence. No more saviours, no more gods, no more blame or denial. And certainly no dissolution into Oneness.”

Ron and Pamela glanced at one another, as if they’d reached similar conclusions. “We’ve been increasingly suspicious of non-duality for a while now,” he admitted. “The expression, ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’ is one that I’ve used a lot, in connection with this, and that’s exactly what you’ve been describing today.”

“Right,” said Sam, emphatically. “And that baby needs to be nurtured, as it’s nothing less than God’s own vehicle of expression and experience. That’s why we call it Functional Non-duality, because it recognises both the non-dual nature of existence, as well as the function of the individual, which is inseparable from — and vital to –existence.”

Pamela reached across the table and gently grasped Sam’s hand. “For the first time in my life,” she said, “I know that I am hearing the unexpurgated truth being spoken, and I feel quite overwhelmed. This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”

“Don’t you dare cry,” Sam warned her, “or else you’ll set me off too.”